Remains of six Auschwitz victims to be buried at Bushey New Cemetery

People are invited to Bushey New Cemetery this Sunday where the remains of six people, including a child, which had been stored in the archives of the Imperial War Museum (IWM), are laid to rest.

They have been at the museum for decades, but when the IWM decided the ash remains should be returned to the Jewish community, the United Synagogue offered to bury the victims.

The museum had initially contacted the Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum and the Chief Rabbi for advice.

The six unknown victims, five adults and a child, were murdered at Auschwitz, the largest German Nazi concentration camp where more than a million people lost their lives.

Michael Goldstein, president of the United Synagogue, said: “We have the opportunity to do what was denied to our brothers and sisters during the Holocaust: to provide a dignified and appropriate Jewish burial.

“We must remember that although we have only the remains of a number of victims of the Holocaust, each was a person in their own right, with a family and a life and a Jewish identity, with hopes and dreams just like each of us.”

The community are invited to Bushey New Cemetery in Little Bushey Lane on Sunday at 11am.